Andy Hayter

Killingworth Billy is, it seems, rather older than previously thought https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-tyne-44482970

The problem is that the majority do not understand that while you cannot get a hurricane in Europe, you can and do get hurricane force winds. They equate the latter with the former and to be honest, does it matter what you call it. It's damn windy and causes quite a lot of damage.

I have to agree. I have a friend who loves to keep these folk on the phone for as long as possible. His typical ways are to take as long as possible to do each of the steps they ask you to do - while not actually doing any of them. Ask stupid questions at each step explaining that you are not very clever with computers (this usually makes them think the hook will really stick). Sign off is often along the lines of: At some stage where you are about to give over control to them if you do do each of the steps, "You said I should have a box come up." "Yes a black box and you type into it." "I don't have a box". "You should have". Do you think it makes a difference that I don't use Microsoft and use Linux?" - phone goes dead. Or at the box stage again, "I have got the box on screen now." "Yes now just type in ……." " Does it matter that I have a message in the box already?" "What does it say?" "This is a scam!". Usually clocks them up 20 minutes of phone bills plus it is time they are not scamming someone more vulnerable. :

I agree totally but that affects H pretty much as a whole (and B as well for that matter) and is not specific to the European ranges, which was the basis of the original question.

The difference in distribution costs is indeed stark but do not fool yourselves that we are anyway close to comparing like for like. I doubt that B's costs would cover even the simple shipping costs from China to the EU let alone anything else.

Unlike most things B related I think there will be no problems despite a massive lack of clarity about what anything regarding B means. Hornby Jouef (for example) still exists and they as a French based company can import into the EU. There is, in any case, no duty payable on toys, so nothing needs to change there. It may mean that models have to be imported directly rather than via the distribution hub in the UK - or perhaps they can be simply held in transit there - I believe EU rules currently allow 90 days such storage outside the EU without penalty.

Very interesting TheQ. I note that the tower also has a "divorced" cement line that is close to but not linked to the top of the roof. I wonder whether this follows the line of an earlier thatch or whether this is a drip line that deflects water running down the face of the tower away from the thatch a few inches below.

If you extend the line of the former roof down it comes well down the clerestory and does not belong to it. Extending further to the lower wall and it sits comfortably above and could well mark the line of the top of thatch on a single storey nave - pre-clerestory.

I will simply repeat what I have posted elsewhere. On the one and only time I was able to avail myself of the caviar and champers they had said model and after consuming my bottle of water I was asked what appealed. "the H2", I said would be nice in LBSCR livery if you could do it, but you aren't going say are you even as a collectors model? Broad smile was the response.

I doubt it very much. Outsourcing contracts usually work on the basis of goods in, storage and goods out. Goods in - containers of materials - probably charged for each stock item in the container. So if there are two different models in the container you collect 2 sets of charges, if there are 10 items collect 10 sets of charges. Storage - what you have in stock at the end of each accounting period (usually the end of month) x some fee for storage - usually pallet or part pallet. Goods out - you get charged per transaction plus probably for each stock item sent out. This is where the costs of outsourcing and direct sales becomes expensive. Trader orders 550 items in ten categories and you pay for 10 items going out of stock plus a standard handling fee. 20 direct sales customers order 100 items you pay 20 standard handling fees. plus a fee for each individual item ordered - unless one of them order more than one of an item. So for the sake of argument if each of the 20 order exactly the same: 1 locomotive 1 carriage type 1 1 carriage type 2 1 carriage type 3 1 wagon. That is 20 handling fees 20 locomotive stock movement fees 20 carriage type 1 fees and so on. To be honest an over estimate would have done Hornby no harm at all.

Of course it could be that the LBSC version will be a collectors club special. I agree however everything is there to do it.

Sorry but it seems you do not understand percentages/chance and probability. The Met says there is a 10% chance of rain. It rained. They are right. It wasn't likely but it came anyway and they warned you. Rain is either there or not there. It can be heavy, it can be light but it is still either there or not. You cannot get 10% rain. There are therefore only two situations when the met can be wrong - they forecast 100% probability of rain and it doesn't rain; or 0% chance of rain and it does. In every other case they are right. The 10% does not relate to the quantity of rain, only the probability of getting it.

"Part-Dieu has more operational interest..." Not when engineering works at Botteaux causes everything to be diverted - rule number 1 supported by reality Joseph Part Dieu has 12 platform faces now - so probably wider than Perrache by a smidgen.

And if you want an industrial roundy roundy then the chemical works to the North West of Ferrara in Italy is the perfect basis. You can use google satellite to get a good impression, but basically a single line entry onto an oval of track with passing loops and sidings going off at odd angles - much a la Hornby track plan style.

Nothing to the South that I can remember at Perrache as a scenic break but I do agree that the tunnel then over the Saone through to the station building overbridge would make a fascinating set piece with genuine scenic breaks.

I am sorry but I am amazed by the negativity shown here and in several of the other posts. Firstly it is supposed to be entertainment and as such entertaining. Yes we as "experts" can see the staged issues that arise - indeed are almost bound to arise in such projects. Secondly we bemoan the future of our hobby and interest in railways in general and when someone comes along and perhaps starts to take some steps to address that all we can collectively do is slag them off because it does not fit OUR view of how the program should be made - which we would probably find very interesting but would probably send a general audience into deep slumber half way through. If it offends that badly don't watch. I will however make sure I see the rest of the series - not for the staged tension but for the genuine information to be found.

And Hornby have recently done a repaint of their terrier for one of the ones bought be the SECR from the LBSCR - soon to be replaced and probably bettered by the Rails / Dapol release.

Oh my poor, poor wallet. I could not find anything on the MR website though.

30ft x 8ft 4 track oval in H0. Good for watching the trains go by and for running in new stock.

No Colin Nearly right but not quite He reclaims the VAT he paid on the £8 but has to pay the VAT on the £10 sale. So it does cost him.

I apologise to all that I made a major blunder in this analysis. It is not exactly as if the customer had not been there at all. It is much, much worse. The seller owes the Taxman £1.67 VAT collected on the £10 sale. So he is worse off for having sold the item at its replacement cost.

In the case of locos the shop keeper may choose next time to order only 8 locos (unless 10 is a minimum order). There are however many items which sell well (as in continuously) but where the minimum order may well be a box full - replacement wheels, couplings, track pins, bits of track etc. It may then take some time to sell the full minimum orders' worth. During which time prices may well have risen - considerably. I often see the moans of how prices have gone up. In fact over the last 5-6 years prices of locos of a similar type seem to have roughly doubled - that is about the 18% inflation I referred to in my original post on this subject. It can well be that by the time it is time to re-order the purchase price from the supplier is above the old selling price. Model Railway inflation is clearly well out in front of national inflation and these are exactly the conditions where a shop has to be sure that the proceeds of sales are sufficient to fund re-stocking. It hurts the buyer - of course it does - but having even fewer model shops hurt us more.

I get them too. I have no saved searches so it must be based on things I have briefly looked at. More often than no it will be for an item that the seller does not ship to France - so EBay's intelligent system is less than fully intelligent.

Sorry but that was exactly the model that my Jeweller friend was working and it led him to bankruptcy. WE can look at it in two ways. The first is what I think he was thinking and what you seem to be thinking. I bought this item for £8 and I have sold it for £10. I have made £2 profit. Now I have to invest this £2 profit together with the £8 purchase price to get a new identical item. But I will have profit again when I sell the new £10 item for £12.50 and I will be even better off with £2.50 profit.* In the mean time of course he has no money for his living costs, his store rent, his rates, his security system ......... and everything else. *[This is known as the jam tomorrow business model.] The other way of looking at it is that at the start of the process he has a (let's say) gold ring. A customer comes in buys the ring, he buys a replacement ring and 2 weeks later at the end of the process he has a gold ring. To all intents and purposes the customer did not need to have come in and buy it. It is exactly as if there was no customer. He started with a gold ring. He ends with an identical gold ring. It is just as if the sale had never happened ................... ................... and shops that don't sell go out of business. You can argue that the gold ring he held at the end of the process was worth more than the one he held at the start - but it is an identical gold ring. So what makes it more valuable? It was only more valuable on his ledger.

Back in the 70s I knew a jeweller who had been in the business for many years. He had a simple formula for have a good business. He out a handsome set margin on everything he sold (IIRC 60%, and while that sounds a lot I guess that he had relatively low turnover even compared to a model shop. Then he was hit with a triple whammy. 1. UK inflation went up to an average 18% or so. 2. The pound plummeted against the US$ - the currency which is used to price precious metals 3. Gold prices soared as unrest in the middle east created fears of oil price hikes above those already announced. He was convinced after years of being in business that he could continue with his business model. Fact was though he had 60% margin on each watch or ring he sold, when he came to buy a replacement, it was costing him more than the money he had received from the sale. 18 months later he was bankrupt. Lesson: If the income you get from a sale is not enough to cover the stock to replace that item, you either stop stocking that item or you have to put prices up - irrespective of what you might have paid for them.